.png?width=200&height=78&name=CH%20Diligence%20(thicker%20line-white).png "CH Diligence (thicker line-white)")
Bloomberg: The $3.8 trillion municipal-bond market has found a new tool in its effort to understand the impact of climate change: the array of satellites orbiting high above Earth.
Bloomberg: Green bond investors, celebrating a landmark step toward establishing market standards, are starting to worry that the next big thing in sustainable finance could undermine those efforts.
Institutional Investor: Oaktree Capital Management has begun scoring companies in emerging markets based on environmental, social, and governance criteria, a move designed to give it a competitive edge in regions where ESG investing has lagged.
Investment Europe: The use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings has increased sharply in recent years and entered the mainstream investment arena. Such scores and ratings now constitute an important element of security, fund and mandate selection, which has led to strong growth in the number of ESG rating and data providers.
Citywire Selector: Companies will have to face up to increased funding pressures and the prospect of ratings downgrades as the full weight of major asset managers going green comes to pass.
Bloomberg: Nine of the biggest ESG mutual funds in the U.S. outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index last year, and seven of them beat their market benchmarks over the past five years.
Financial Times: State Street’s $3.1tn investment arm is planning to start voting against the boards of big companies that lag behind on environmental, social and governance standards, a threat that is likely to reverberate in many corporate boardrooms. [Full article available to Financial Times subscribers.]
Bloomberg: It was the usual setup for panelists at a finance conference talking about making smart investments. They were all the same gender. In this case, all women. That probably wasn’t surprising, considering the event was hosted by the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment.
Institutional Investor: Early last year, alumni of Blue Harbour Group launched a new activist hedge fund, Impactive Capital, with a $250 million anchor investment from the California State Teachers Retirement System. Its strategy: environmental, social, and governance advocacy.
Financial Times: When it comes to hitting the 2030 targets underpinning the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, considering risk alone will not cut it. Larry Fink’s recent emphasis on climate change risks and divesting in coal is significant, albeit a few decades late, but what about opportunities? And what about other sustainable development issues that threaten to bring businesses down? [Full article available to Financial Times subscribers.]
